Thermodynamics as Metaphor

Abstract

Under consideration here is the hypothesis that the steam engine and thermodynamics in general provide a fecund metaphor and epistemological model from the Enlightenment on to the Romantics. This polarized model’s antagonism, characterised by a contrast between hot and cold poles, inherently determines its movement. Denis Diderot, for one, sees the human being as an unstable equilibrium between the reception of sensory impressions (from outside in) and the decision-making that determines its actions (from inside out). While humans of feeling are characterized by the prevalence of the first movement, akin to billowing gusts of heat, humans of reason and of will are led by the second, chilled by the effect of sustained labour. According to Diderot, the great actor is a paradoxical being who can perform heated sentiments coolly, without feeling any of their residual effects. Following this model, society and nature are worked by tensions that generate a becoming and that are incorporated into history. This conflict can be situated between races, nations, or classes. Such is already manifested, in the late 18^th century, the onset of an aesthetics of the sublime and of a dialectical logic.

Translated by Déborah Spatz and revised by Clara castro.